GAME REPORT

Galatasaray Shake Off Brno To Go Top

"It was one of the toughest matches we have played so far" - Kelsey Bone

Galatasaray Odeabank have improved to 6-2 and drawn level with USK Prague at the top of Group C, after claiming a 63-55 win over WBC Novi Zagreb in Istanbul on Wednesday night.

Zagreb set out to prove that they are much better than their 1-6 record at the start of the game suggested and the Turkish powerhouse only managed to pull away decisively from their persistent visitors in the fourth quarter.

The Croatian side passed the ball inside to center Luca Ivankovic, who collected eight early points as Zagreb led 20-13 with 58 seconds left in the opening period.

Sebnem Kimyacioglu however hit a three-pointer on either side of the first buzzer and prevented the visitors' lead from expanding further.

Galatasaray turned the tables midway through the second quarter, when Bahar Caglar scored her first points in the game to give her team a 25-24 lead with 4:33 remaining to the half-time buzzer.

After their excellent start, Zagreb were suffocated and only managed to score seven points in the entire second frame and the hosts pulled ahead 33-27 at the break.

The visitors threw everything at Galatasaray when the two teams returned from the locker rooms and an Elina Babkina triple with 5:09 left in the third reduced the gap to 35-33, but that was as close as Zagreb would come.

By means of reply, Shavonte Zellous with a lay-up sparked a 7-0 Galatasaray mini-run and the hosts went into the final frame leading 46-39.

They led from a safe distance, mostly in double digits, the rest of the way before Milica Dabovic with a triple at the final buzzer reduced the final difference to eight points.

For Zagreb, Babkina had 16 points and six rebounds and Ivankovic collected a double-double of 12 points and a game-high 17 rebounds.

COACH QUOTES

Quotes: Galatasaray vs. WBC Novi Zagreb

Galatasaray Head Coach Ekrem Memnun "First of all I’m glad that we won. It was a valuable win for us. Zagreb is a team that we needed to take seriously. They have important guards. We rotated with four guards. They shooted very easy points in the first quarter. We let them penetrate. Still we managed to keep them to 55 points which is good for EuroLeague Women. We need to score more. Our offensive percentage was very low but we are happy for the win. I want to congratulate my players. It’s a difficult time for us. Alba is recovering. She will join us soon. I believe we will get back in our rhythm."

Galatasaray Player Kelsey Bone "It was one of the toughest matches we have played so far. Every team is trying to get the playoff positions. It is always important to win the home games. We are happy that we managed to win today."

WBC Novi Zagreb Head Coach Vladimir Ivankovic "First of all I want to congratulate Galatasaray. Actually I’m upset because we didn’t believe that we could win tonight. If we had believed the score could be different. Galatasaray had a 17-0 run in the second period. We couldn't recover from that. Still we proved that we can play high-level basketball."

WBC Novi Zagreb Player Elina Babkina"I think we didn’t play bad but we still need to work hard. Little details make a lot of difference. And we need to work on these details. We will try to get better results."